Multicharts 2.1 ....sub for TS ???

I was looking at Multicharts 2.1 as a possible substitute for Tradestation. I'm interested in anyone's thoughts who has made the move and how the platform performed in charting and optimization etc. Is it a viable substitute and does it perform at, above or below the level of Tradestation and are you happy that you made the move.

I liked MultiCharts and I liked the idea of having a variety of data feeds. But ultimately the program is only as good as the data feed. IB's feed has no history. I didn't find any satisfactory free feeds. TradeStation is a more advanced product. A new release of MultiCharts is due very soon.

IMO, if Multicharts can build their IB trading interface up to where a strategy can get account info and stay in synch with the account then they are ahead of Tradestation... The best of Easy Language worlds would be trading out of Tradestation with a fully featured interface to IB, it's disallowed by Tradestation in your agreements but not enforceable afaik.

The data hassles with Multicharts can be a challenge, that is the beauty of Tradestation, all the data hassles are transparent to the user, click on one of a thousand symbols in Radarscreen and whambam, a chart is pulled up in a second........ and it's a good looking chart too, Tradestation is easy on the eyes...

IB does provide history for last 6 months. It is enough for many traders. I agree that the data quality and speed of loading is not comparable to TS, but you can use eSignal or IQfeed and trade via IB at the same time! MultiCharts allows you to send trades from eSignal charts to IB ones.

IMO, if Multicharts can build their IB trading interface up to where a strategy can get account info and stay in synch with the account then they are ahead of Tradestation...

More...

We are completing new auto-trading interface. It will support stops/limits. The next version (3.1) will have feedback. You will be able to get account size, margin and actual market position right from PL script.

MC released its version 3 beta1 at the end of January.
They have just released Version 3 beta2.

This version is very stable, with most of the beta1 bugs ironed out.
I am using it in my trading everyday.

This version should go Gold in the next few weeks.

(inside info: The price will almost double when V3 goes Gold. I do not work for MC; this is not meant to be a pressure sales pitch for them. This is merely info for those who has already decided and want to save some money before the price goes up.)